off to the dnc - take 6

take 6I have a delivery in the boondocks of Wisconsin –north of Chicago. it is quite beautiful, very wooded and dark green, what I can see of it. it is getting late, the sun is setting & I’m losing another hour so won’t I arrive at my customer’s at 11:30p.m. insteadof 10:30 as I had promised them. they live in a small,country town 20 miles northwest of Madison. mapquest sends me thru the center of town & I pick up an angry red tow-truck on my tail. first I thought he was just reading my messages. then he passes me, scowling in my direction but doesn’t make any overt signs. he slows down, get’s behind me for awhile, then revs up and races past me this time. he continues to do that a couple of times & I pointedly put my cellphone earplug on under the traffic lights and begin talking to myself – yeah, an idiot, yeah, he’s in a big red tow truck, yeah he’s a white boy, no he’s about 45 or 50,yeah he’s by himself. I get a whole chapter spoken to myself, & this lad still hasn’t tired of tailing me. mapquest is like sending me thru this maze that I know no other sane person would be traveling, especially not one that knows this town. plus I make a couple of wrong turns & have to u-turn to return to the route. my partner doesn’t lose me. I begin to worry a little as we head down some very dark, very quiet, very desolate country roads. my truck is definitely taller than his but I’m sure his is more than a 4 cylinder! I wonder if he’s going to follow me right down the driveway of my customer. I wished I would have stopped at a lited gas station to talk w/him & find out his intentions. at least there would be other folks around but that can be even scarier than dealing w/just one asshole – other folks can seemingly easily totally ignore altercations especially of the racist, sexist,oppressive types, thereby supporting the attacker –making me feel like I’m fighting a whole slew of folks, & not just one enraged fellow. as I get within the last .6 of a mile before turning down the .9 of a dirt road that leads to their house, I figure I better call them to warn them I have atail. I actually turn too soon & pull into the wrong dirt road so I hastily make a u-turn. the fellow continues down the road I just turned off of. so I proceed relieved to the next lane. they live in a house built in the early 19 hundreds deep in the woods. when I’m leaving the dirt road, returning onto the little 2 lane highway I can now notice amazing trees so heavy & thick I can’t see the stars in the black sky. a huge bird, wings at least 3’ long each, suddenly glides so close to the front of my truck I think I hear her wings. I amazed she can fly so close to the ground & in such dense foliage, under the thick drooping branches of the trees. she lands on a branch at the side of the road about 10’ up– so I’m about eye-level w/her toes – and I see she’s a huge owl. unfuckinbelievable! I’m glad it isnite-time. I think when you see an owl during the day it portends death coming to someone close – my granny,of course, but I don’t need a citing of an owl to tell me her time is near. I do calculate the time at my daughter’s & decide not to call her. she wouldn’t appreciate me asking how she’s feeling at 2:30 a.m. on a work nite! I feel blessed to have shared space w/such an astounding creature and marvel at how she has swept me clean of any lingering distaste from the red tow truck driver! I drive thru Illinois, Chicago mostly, all nite & don’t stop until I get to Indiana – I do NOT want tobe in Chicago when most folks are up – that is a nitemare traffic scene. even in the dark, I get 13 yeah’s and peace signs – one little f.u.!